Immersive Explorer : Metro Style Explorer for Windows 7

Microsoft has finally set a date for releasing the final release version of Windows 8. With high anticipations for this upcoming version of Windows, everyone wants to have a taste of the Metro UI features of Windows 8. If you cannot hold yourself for a few more months, then you can use the Immersive Explorer to see what Metro UI is all about. Immersive Explorer is a replacement for Windows Explorer that is designed with the full Metro UI interface.

Immersive Explorer is designed to be an alternative to the default file explorer included in Windows (also called the Windows Explorer). The design is a true copy of the Metro UI interface of Windows 8. Its main focus is to provide easy access to the content, compared to showing many icons and toolbars. It will also avoid the user from having to open different applications and navigate between multiple windows when doing things as simple as viewing a picture.For example, when a user wants to view a JPEF file, instead of opening Windows Photo Viewer in a new window, the JPEG file will be displayed directly in the Immersive Explorer window.

You can download the Immersive Explorer program from the Julian Manici website. The download is a portable application so that you can just extract it from the ZIP archive and run it without the need of installing anything first. Immersive Explorer is designed using the Microsoft .NET 4.0 Framework, so you need to install it before you can actually run the application. You can download Microsoft. NET 4.0 Framework from http://mcaf.ee/3gxo5.

Unlike the Windows Explorer, when you double-click on a file it is opened within the Immersive Exploer itself unless that file type is not supported. For example, when you double-click on a picture file in Immersive Explorer it displays that image in the Immersive Explorer itself. Similarly, when you click on a file, the file properties are shown in the Immersive Explorer itself. You can also choose to display the MD5 and SHA-1 hash checksums of selected file along with the file properties if you want to.

You can run Immersive Explorer in windowed mode. The buttons to minimize or maximize its window are shown on the top-right corner. You can also run this application in full screen mode. As you select an item, the commands related to it are shown at the bottom. For example, when you select a folder, the commands Browse, View, Edit, Create Folder etc. are shown at the bottom of the window.

Immersive Explorer is still in its starting days and is missing some desirable features like an option to replace Windows Explorer, full support for multi-touch screens (like Windows 8 supports them) etc. It is doing a great job bringing the Metro UI to the Windows 7 users, but can also be used by the Windows 8 users as well.